The Just Like My Child Foundation family has unfortunately lost one of our most treasured and significant team members on the ground. Sadly our Construction Supervisor, George William recently passed on from complications after surgery at Malogo Hospital in Kampala from an obstruction in his intestines. This has been a...

Recently I found myself wandering around a local downtown area near the San Diego coastline, aimlessly weaving in and out of independent shops in a very affluent neighborhood, when something caught my eye. For a moment I disregarded what I saw. The colorful paper beads had lost major significance to...

"I discovered ways of building my self esteem"

"I unlearned the mentality that men are stronger than women!" -- Two graduates of the Girl Power Project.

For centuries, Ugandan women and girls have been forced to meekly kneel before men. We at Just Like My Child Foundation are...

There's nothing like "Wekembe" to transform an African village! "Wekembe" is a Lugandan word that means, "We do it ourselves!" We all know how great "Wekembe" is in our lives, and this word totally captures the excitement we see when struggling people have new empowerment and the hope of economic...

When 15-year-old Jillian was pressured by her father to marry too young to a much older man, she pushed back. Unlike many young girls in rural Uganda, Jillian knew that she had legal rights and couldn't be forced to marry against her will.

Many in Jillian's community in the Luwero...

Last November, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to India.

We went to many of the holiest cities in the North, including Rishikesh, made famous by The Beatles. They wrote many songs during the brief time they were there, including "Why Don't We Do It In The Road," --...

When I met Nalubombwe Josephine in May of 2007, she was a 10-year-old-girl living in one of the most vulnerable situations imaginable. Nearly 30% of her neighbors were infected with HIV, she was surrounded by dozens of orphans, and she was going to a school that had no books and...

Several of my recent blogs talked about the importance of education in developing countries, specifically in Uganda. I talked about the great impact the Just Like My Child Foundation has had within certain rural Ugandan villages, the schools and programs that were built specifically to educate young children who...

Some people thought I was crazy. But I did it anyway because I knew we'd be fine. Despite an Ebola scare and political instability, I took my husband, Mike, and my 8-year-old son to Uganda to visit Just Like My Child's projects. My son raised money and delivered nearly $3000...

It doesn't take long to see that there are few better ways to change the course of the world than to get girls into school and to keep them there. Furthermore, the United Nations has consistently advocated that educating girls has a larger impact on the world than any other...

In 1996, President Museveni of Uganda promised his people that the government would provide free primary education for up to four children per family - a program commonly called Universal Primary Education -- our version of a free system of Public School. However, Uganda's government-sponsored Universal Primary Education (UPE) program...

One of the overwhelmingly joyful things about being in Uganda in May is that millions of mangoes are ripe! The trees are so heavy with ripe fruit, it's like a sweet bachanal. Men, women, children beat the trees with long sticks to coax the fruit down from nearly 50 feet...

If you have ever been pregnant then you will understand the trials and tribulations I am about to write. When you first find out you have a life growing inside of you, you feel scared. Scared about the type of mother you will be and maybe, "how in the world...

Empowering women is just one facet of Just Like My Child's mission of improving the quality of life for the women and children in rural villages in Uganda. It gives me great pride and pleasure to share some astounding results I have received from our empowerment expert, Monica...

Before our recent Just Like My Child Foundation journey to Uganda, my time was spent helping my son count money and add up the pencils and crayons he raised in school supplies for the trip. We also had time for his school's Science Fair, which brought a ton...

A couple of weeks ago, I had a late night with my amazing team in Uganda. After I put my 8-year-old son to bed under a hot and sticky bed net on his first full day in Africa, we consumed more than our fair share of Nile Specials, which we...

Several posts back, I introduced our amazing contributors Ben and Beatrice Oryang, who are both professors of education at a teacher's college in Uganda. If you missed that post, I urge you to go back and read about these two people. In brief, Ben and Beatrice are the...

When was the last time you met someone with AIDS? Do you know anyone with AIDS? How is he or she coping with the antiretroviral therapy that most Americans can access through health coverage? Did you know that there is an estimated 1.2 million Ugandans living with AIDS...

The news of Bin Laden's death has captured world attention, and it's made me wonder, as civilians, how can we create our own counter-terrorism efforts? Here's my story:

A few weeks ago I told my 8-year-old boy that I was going back to Uganda in May to work "on the...

I recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Uganda where the Just Like My Child team and our partners powered through a rigorous agenda. We negotiated a deal with Heifer International to put over 500 Ugandan families in business, sealed a contract with women attorneys who will carry...